Fall From Heaven II, a D&D mod for Civ 4

[Izmir Stinger]

I did a search through old threads looking for one about Fall from Heaven, and was surprised to find it only mentioned a few times in passing, despite there being multiple threads about Civ 4. Considering the nature of this forum I would expect all Civ players here to be fans of Fall from Heaven as it is essentially a D&D version of Civilization 4 (based on the creator's homebrew campaign setting).

So, civ4 players, have you tried these mods (http://kael.civfanatics.net/)? I played D&D back in the 3.0 days and lost interest, but this mod had reinvigorated my interest for playing D&D. I still haven't fully explored the depth of the game or tried all the different civilizations, means of warfare or paths to victory.

I definitely recommend you try it if you have a copy of Civ 4 collecting dust somewhere. The learning curve is a bit steep, mostly because it is still in Beta and the Civlopedia updates are lagging behind the actual updates so trying to look up information about buildings or units can be misleading. Once you've figured out how it all works, playing it is a truly awesome experience.

A synopsis of my current game should illustrate the game's fantasy epic appeal:

I had been playing Good aligned civilizations for my past few games so I decided to try something evil. I decided on the Sheaim, a civilization ruled by a dark cult of necromancers bent on causing the end of the world. They supplement their undead armies with demons that enter the world trough planar gates - a structure unique to this civilization. You cannot control the rate at which they appear, or what abilities they have when they come through, but the maximum number you can control is set by how close the world is to ending tracked by a 0-99 "Armageddon counter" that advances when atrocities are committed such as burning an inhabited city to the ground.

Exploration led me to my first neighbors, the Luchirp. Reclusive dwarven golem makers, they rarely leave the confines of their mountain homes and instead craft golems that form the bulk of their armies. Their lands were not very fertile, so they were having a slow start, and I decided to advance the Armageddon counter by burning their puny civilization to the ground. This would also eliminate one good civilization from competing with me in the inevitable late game Good vs. Evil conflict. Unfortunately for them, their primary "infintry" unit early in the game is Wooden Golems - they don't gain access to the more powerful Iron or Clockwork golems until they are more advanced. This is unfortunate for them because wood golems are vulnerable to fire, and I can make Pyre Zombies. Undead risen from a funeral pyre, they burn with otherworldly fire until killed in battle. Then they explode. I sacrificed many of these inexpensive units and obliterated the puny dwarfs.

During the war I founded the Ashen Veil religion, a death worshiping cult that compliments my civilization strengths and aims. I am working on spreading it and advancing the power of my necromancers when another of my neighbors, the Clan of Embers, declares war on me. The clan is a loosely organized orchish barbarian horde. They have penalties to research and are barred from most of the advanced units, but they make up for it by having vast armies. They start out at peace with the unaffiliated barbarians that plague most civs early expansion. They cast their world spell (a unique one time use ability that each civilization has) "For the Horde" that causes half of the world's barbarian units to come under their control. This caused me to be attcked from a direction I wasn't expecting. A few barbarian cities had cropped up to my south, but I wasn't really worried about them until half of their garrisons came charging at me. Fortunately, the Armageddon counter reaches a critical threshold around this time, nearly doubling the number of demons that come through my planar gates. That, coupled with me sacrificing slaves to get extra living archers to defend my cities, my necromancers are freed up to go on the offensive headed by an army of skeletons and, of course, exploding zombies. I wipe out about half of the barbarians cities and then get a peace deal, he actually had a few military techs and economic techs I had skipped in favor of magical studies, including the ability to build warships.

My new fleet is making contact with other civilizations - most of whom are leery of me because I dabble in necromancy - including the only one likely to be an ally in the late game, the Cabalim. They are an aristocracy of vampires that rule an abject and miserable human civilization as a personal feeding ground. They have converted to the Octopus Overlords religion (Cuthulu worship) but it hasn't spread to all of their cities and they didn't found it, so I think that I can convert them to the Ashen Veil. I also meet the Banor, a war forge human nation that (when AI controlled) almost always founds "Order" - the religion dedicated to eliminating the scourge of demonkind and the undead. Their paladins will become a problem for me later.

While the world's socio-political climate is shaping up, I have performing secret rituals to invite the Infernals into the world. This creates a new civilization which I can opt to play (I opt out this time) that starts with all the techs I have and a powerful demon that can take control of one Ashen Veil worshiping city (he takes the founding city of course - hurting my economy a bit) and a population of demon manes created by all the evil people that have died in wars. Most of them came from my war with the Clan, I think. His population doesn't have to eat, so he can settle them all in the same city. Because I summoned him, we start out on the same side, but he will turn on me in a heartbeat if I no longer suit his purposes. The land around his city starts to change to hell terrain, unsuitable for living civilizations but fine for his demons and OK for me. It will spread first in Ashen Veil lands, then into other evil players lands, then into neutral lands, and if the Armageddon is truly neigh (complete with the 4 horsemen being unleashed and everything), it will spread into all lands. Worshipers of Order are immune to this effect.

Hyborem (the infernal leader) declares war on the Banor, which means I have to as well. Our geographic separation prevents the war from going anywhere, but, as I feared (and before I could get the Cabalim on my side completely) the Banor counter my new ally by summoning the Mercurians - an angelic race that counters the Infernals. All good people that die in war become angels in their service. Unlike my relationship with the Infernals, the Mercurians are bound to always protect the civ that summoned them.

Not all games follow the same good vs. evil path, and plenty of huge wars can start over nothing better than land and resources, but when the Banor and the Sheaim are both in the same game, they will definitely go at it. Whether everyone else gets involved depends on various factors.

I am about to go play some more now.

[Dragor]

I've heard it mentioned quite a lot here and there on GitP, but never have downloaded it. My interest has been piqued, though, and I'm downloading it now.

Also: Octopus Overlords? How can it not be awesome. :smalltongue:

[Izmir Stinger]

I've heard it mentioned quite a lot here and there on GitP, but never have downloaded it. My interest has been piqued, though, and I'm downloading it now.

Also: Octopus Overlords? How can it not be awesome. :smalltongue:

If you want to pursue that religion, play as the Luan - they have good synergy. The map script is usually good about starting them on the coast but if it doesn't, restart. That civ and that religion are all about the water.

Good luck.

[Izmir Stinger]

I'm a little disappointed there isn't much interest in this mod. I guess Civ 4 is a bit of a niche game, even among D&D players. I hope you enjoy it Dragor, and I'm glad I could share this gem of a game with someone.

Patches are fairly frequent - sometimes twice a week. New features are added with every numbered version (every month or so) and the letters after the version number are bug fix patches. There is a very active forum for this mod over at Civ Fanatics (http://www.civfanatics.com/) including stickies with patch notes and bug reporting.

There are bugs, as it is in beta, but crash to desktop style bugs are rare; I have never encountered one. They are usually along the line of "Unit X should be resistant to fire damage, buy my fire elemental are defeating them easily, I don't think it is working" kind of stuff.

I recommend setting Civ 4's in game alarm clock, this game can suck you in. Enjoy.

[Inhuman Bot]

I just got Civ 4 today, and am downloading the patch now. comments will come later.

And aside from everything being fantasy, when it comes down to gameplay, how much different is it?

[Selrahc]

I just got Civ 4 today, and am downloading the patch now. comments will come later.

And aside from everything being fantasy, when it comes down to gameplay, how much different is it?

If you have the Beyond the Sword expansion pack, it comes with the prequel to Fall from Heaven, which serves as a basic primer to the lore and gameplay of the series.

As far as gameplay... it's not really all that different to the main game. The basics are all pretty much the same IIRC.

[Izmir Stinger]

Here is a link (http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=190) to the official forums for Fall from Heaven 2. All the information you could ever need is over there.

Just a little heads up on nomunclature:

The mod Fall from Heaven is for the basic Civilization IV game without any expansion packs installed. I have not played that one.

Fall from Heaven was quite popular with the online Civ4 community, and after the Beyond the Sword expansion came out the creator, Kael, was invited to create a "scenario" for BtS that would be included with a patch. This scenario is called Age of Ice, and it is included in your Civ4 scenarios screen if you are running a recent version.

Fall from Heaven II(beta) is a mod for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. Civilization IV, and the latest version of the BtS expansion pack (3.17, iirc) is required to play it.

As far as gameplay, it is very similar to Civ 4. The basic mechanics of using settlers to found cities and sending out workers to improve the terrain with farms, mines and cottages and building improvements and soldiers in your cities - this remains unchanged. The tech tree is all custom, of course, as are the units. Here is a synopsis of some of my favorite features:

Custom Art. Most of the unit models were made specially for this game. The barbarians are Orcs and Goblins, the Dwarven and Elven units appear as such, and many high end units have cool unique artwork. New art is added every few patches.

Attack and defense strength. Some units have a different strength for offense and defense, such as archers (3 attack, 5 defense) This is a throwback to older versions of the Civilization franchise.

Stronger and more varied promotions. Leveling up your units is much more important in this game than it is in standard Civ4, as most of the promotions from that game are up to twice as powerful (e.g. Combat promotions give +20% strength, shock gives +40% vs. melee) and there are many more options available (e.g. Shock 2 gives and additional +40% vs. melee, Bounty Hunter gives 2 gold per combat victory, Command1-5 gives 10-50% chance to convert defeated enemies to your side). Not all of the "promotions" are good, some indicate status ailments such as disease or poison and are "granted" by the abilities of other units.

Dangerous world. Like the world of dungeons and dragons, the wilderness is a dangerous place filled with ferocious creatures and dangerous monsters. The power of the barbarians in this game is somewhere between what it would be in a normal game of Civ4, and what it would be if you turned on the "raging barbarians" option. May the gods help you if you turn on raging barbarians in this game. Also, the wilderness has monster lairs such as crypts, goblin forts and ancient ruins that produce a certain type of monster every few turns. These lairs can be explored by your units to destroy them, and maybe find treasure, ancient artifacts of power, unlikely allies and even more dangerous enemies inside. Also, barbarians are more likely to build cities in this game and entire sections of the map can wind up controlled by the "barbarian empire".

Unique Units and Buildings. Most civilizations have several unique units and/or buildings and many of them are radically different than the ones they replace, instead of merely being a slight improvement like regular civ. Some civs are completely denied access to certain units because they have a unique unit or units that are so powerful or flexible, they needed to be denied certain units for balance or "realism" (e.g. one of the Dwarven Civilizations gets golems that replace most of their military units, but cannot make mages, archmages or longbowmen)

Leader and civilization traits. There are a bunch of interesting new leader traits, in addition to familiar old ones like spiritual, aggressive and charismatic which do mainly the same thing the old ones did. One of the Civilizations is "agnostic," it cannot have a state religion or research religious techs. To make up for it, that leader has the powerful "adaptive" trait, which lets him switch out his second trait every 50 turns. Another similar one is "insane." The insane leaders have 3 traits rather than the normal 2, but they change randomly every 50 turns. There is also "tolerant" which lets cities you capture continue to have access to their original civilizations unique units and buildings. "Barbarian" reduces your science output and removes access to many important economic buildings like libraries, but removes many building and resource requirements for units and starts you out at peace with the AI barbarians.

World Spells. Every civilization has access to a powerful ability, a "world Spell" that they can use once per game. Examples include "March of the trees," all forests within your borders become powerful treant units for 3 turns, "Arcane Lacuna" which prevents all other players from casting spells for 20 turns, and "Revelry" which will start a golden age that lasts twice as long as normal.

Heroes. Every civilization has a unique Hero unit that they can build, but once it is dead, it is gone. The hero has a special promotion that gives them 1 XP per turn until they have 100, and grants access to special hero only promotions (which are VERY powerful). There are also 2 heroes available for followers of each of the seven religions.

Magic. There is a new type of resource in the game: mana. There is a research path which gives you access to adepts, then mages, and later still archmages. You cannot build mages or archmages, they must be upgraded from a lower tier unit that has reached a certain level (they gain an xp every few turns, so you don't have to risk them in combat to upgrade them). These units can get special promotions based on what types of mana you have access to. These promotions grant them spells. Each type of mana grants different spells, and the most powerful spells can only be cast by the mages and archmages. Most civs start with 3 diferent types (provided by their palace building) and your mages can build "mana nodes" on top of raw mana resources in the world. The type of node you build determines the type of mana it grants you, and you can only change one if you have access to metamaic (another type of mana). There are 18 types, so choose carefully. You only need one source of a particular kind of mana to get all the spells, but each source you have past the first lets all your eligible caster units start with a level of that type of magic for free instead of having to spend XP on it. Also, about half of them grant some civilization wide benefit such at +5% Great person emergence rate (spirit mana) or +1 happiness in all cities (enchantment mana) which is cumulative.

Distinct religions. Each of the 7 religion in the game provides unique benefits, such as the heroes, mentioned above, as well as other units and buildings that you can only construct if it is your state religion. All of the religions but one have access to "disciple" units which are essentially clerics. The first one can spread the religion like a missionary, and has the medic promotion (only available to disciple units). The second one is stronger, has access to a healing ability, an ability that removes some negative status effects, and one spell unique to that religion. The third is stronger still, has access to a more powerful religious spell, but you can only have 4 and you cannot build them - you must upgrade tier two disciple units to this unit. There are also alignment specific disciple units. Good civilizations can build paladins, neutral civs can build druids, and evil civs can build edilons (demon paladins). You can only have 4 of these, and you can build them or upgrade tier two disciple units to them, or certain other types of units, depending on alignment (rangers can become druids, knights can become paladins, etc.) giving them promotions or spells that they would not normally be able to select when leveling up.

Assassination. Obviously your mages and high priests are your most valuable units, and you want to use them in combat, but don't want them to be killed by the enemy. These units are considered "much weaker" for purposes of determining who defends a stack of units that is under attack. Therefore, enemies would have to kill or heavily damage most of the units accompanying them before they can kill your casters. The exception is vs. the assassin unit. This unit (and upgrades to it) attack the weakest unit in the stack. Some units can be given (or start with) the Guardsmen promotion, which makes them considered "weakest" for purposes of determining who defends the stack, so assassins will have to kill these units first to get your valuable ones.



As you can see, there is a lot going on here. Hope you like it.

[shadowxknight]

I tried this mod, and I gotta say it's extremely fun and addictive. I sent my starting warrior to explore the dungeons, and now he is at over 100 exp and dominating all enemy units.

Quick question though: what building is required to produce civilization-unique heroes?
I tried checking on the wiki but for some reason it's not connecting for me right now.

EDIT: Another question: is there any way to play a saved game on a different version after updating?

[Izmir Stinger]

I tried this mod, and I gotta say it's extremely fun and addictive. I sent my starting warrior to explore the dungeons, and now he is at over 100 exp and dominating all enemy units.

Some times you get lucky with your starting warrior, usually he doesn't come home. Be sure to save him and upgrade him to an Axmen/Swordsmen and later into an Immortal or Phalanx (assuming you have access to those units).


Quick question though: what building is required to produce civilization-unique heroes?

Some don't require buildings, and those that do usually require the type of building that unlocks the unit of their type. Some mounted heroes require stables, melee heroes require the training yard, magic heroes require a mage guild, etc. The trick is, figuring out what technology unlocks him. Who are you playing as? Some of them don't get their hero until the very end of the game.


EDIT: Another question: is there any way to play a saved game on a different version after updating?

Some updates break saved game files. If you want to finish a game make sure it isn't marked as "breaks save games" in this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=302590). If you accidentally do, you can rollback by deleting the Fall From Heaven folder from your BtS directory and reinstalling.

[shadowxknight]

I am currently playing as the Calabim, but when I asked the question I was playing as Svartalfar.

Also did they make a new wiki and simply didn't update it on their links page? Cause currently the wiki doesn't work.

[Izmir Stinger]

I am currently playing as the Calabim, but when I asked the question I was playing as Svartalfar.

Also did they make a new wiki and simply didn't update it on their links page? Cause currently the wiki doesn't work.

The wiki is brand new, they are probably having growing pains with the site, and not much has been populated yet. I look up most stuff in the civlopedia or the manual you can download here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=265888). The manual is more out of date than the Civlopedia, but can be searched more easily.

The Cabalim are great, but their hero isn't available until late. Your main UU is the Vampire, and they are all like little mini heroes because they can feed on the population of a city to gain XP. You may have noticed you have a unique building called the "breeding pit" that speeds city growth. Once you get Vampires (tech Feudalism) they level up really fast by using this ability, and they know how to raise dead and cast a few buffs on themselves and others. Feeding on the citizens causes unhappiness, but its ok, because the Governor's Manor (required to build vampires) makes unhappy citizens produce 1 hammer.

Your hero (tech Fanatacism) is just a regular vampire, a little stronger, but every time she kills a living unit, she becomes immortal, and will respawn when killed, loosing immortality until her next kill. Note, you cannot build two important scientific buildings, the Elder Council and the Alchemy lab. Should your people learn too much about the world, they may discover they are better off without your "protection."

I never really liked the Svartalfar (dark elves). The other elves (Ljosalfar) are more fun to play. Some people swear by them and their overpowered assassins, though. Their hero is unlocked by poisons, and is an assassin that can make a copy of himself with a magic mirror that he starts with. You probably noticed that they don't have to cut down trees to build improvements. Both elf races are that way.

[Lord Mancow]

Looks quite fun. I think I'm going to download it unless the Civ4 complete pack comes with it. What difficulty would you recommend starting at? Whose a nice easy introduction into the game?

What difficulty do you guys normally play normal Civ4 on because my dad and I tend to find anything above Warlord quite difficult.

[Eldaran]

Well, after reading this thread, and the manual on their website, I downloaded this even though I didn't much care for regular Civ4.

Well, I have to say, this mod is awesome. Probably at least partly because I'm a big fan of fantasy, but also it's just more interesting.

The only thing I don't like, is that it seems too easy. My first game I was playing as Calabim, but the difficulty was pretty low and I quit after awhile because the AI wasn't building hardly anything.

So this game I'm playing as Kuriotates, on Monarch difficultly, but I'm only on turn 115, and I've already destroyed three other civs, and am cranking out three centaurs a turn in preparation to swarm the three remaining civs.

[Eldan]

So, I have to finally go out and get Beyond the Sword? What does that actually introduce to the game? I mean, this mod sounds cool, but buying an expansion pack for it...

[Corlindale]

Haven't played it in a while, though I was part of the original development team (did no actual programming though, just contributed ideas and flavor text writing). The Elohim hero is named after my alias:smallsmile:

This thread really gives me the urge to try it again, see what the others made of it during my absence.

Can the Calabim vampires still infect other units with vampirism? I remember they could get some wickedly powerful mages by turning them into vampires and feeding on fast-growing agricultural cities. A bit overpowered, though.

Power imbalances between civs were a bit of a problem in the earlier stages of the mod (since the individual Civs are so radically different), but I assume it's been improved a lot now.

[Izmir Stinger]

Looks quite fun. I think I'm going to download it unless the Civ4 complete pack comes with it. What difficulty would you recommend starting at? Whose a nice easy introduction into the game?

What difficulty do you guys normally play normal Civ4 on because my dad and I tend to find anything above Warlord quite difficult.

I play Civ on Emperor and FFH on Immortal. I'd say stick with your usual difficulty level while you are learning and then bump it up. The "human intelligence" advantage is more pronounced in this game because the AI has only a basic understanding of how to use spells to its advantage. The more sophisticaed tactics you come up with will allow you to do allot more with alot less.

DO NOT USE EPIC OR MARATHON GAMESPEED. Quick is ok, but it plays best on normal. It is very porly balanced for the longer gamespeeds.


Well, I have to say, this mod is awesome. Probably at least partly because I'm a big fan of fantasy, but also it's just more interesting.

The only thing I don't like, is that it seems too easy. My first game I was playing as Calabim, but the difficulty was pretty low and I quit after awhile because the AI wasn't building hardly anything.

Yeah, once you get the hang of it, you can play it on a higher difficulty than you can normally handle in CIV4. One fun way to increase the difficulty without actually changing the difficulty level is to create a custom game and select "Barbarian World." The barbarians will settle a few dozen cities on turn 10, and you have to fight them to expand.

They also made a few chalange game types. One that boosts the difficulty every 50 turns untill it is on Deity, and another that, whenever you are the top ranked player by score it will switch you to the lowest ranked, and you have to fight your way to the top with them, then it does it again, and the third one is the one you have to win with.


So, I have to finally go out and get Beyond the Sword? What does that actually introduce to the game? I mean, this mod sounds cool, but buying an expansion pack for it... Lots of stuff to make the late game more fun, including a completely reworked espianoge system. I don't know if you should buy BtS for it. I like playing regular civ, too, and thought that BtS was a big improvement.

[Izmir Stinger]

Haven't played it in a while, though I was part of the original development team (did no actual programming though, just contributed ideas and flavor text writing). The Elohim hero is named after my alias:smallsmile:

No kidding! He is one of the more interesting hereos. His power to stop all wars is pretty cool.


Can the Calabim vampires still infect other units with vampirism? I remember they could get some wickedly powerful mages by turning them into vampires and feeding on fast-growing agricultural cities. A bit overpowered, though.

Power imbalances between civs were a bit of a problem in the earlier stages of the mod (since the individual Civs are so radically different), but I assume it's been improved a lot now.

Yes they can, but the gift of vampirism can only be bestowed on units that are allready 6th level, mitigating it somewhat.

[Dairuka]

I'd relate Fall from heaven closer to Lords of Magic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Magic) and Might and Magic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_of_Might_and_Magic) story-line and concept-wise.

Although calling it a D&D mod would certainly attract more people's attention on a D&D fan-forum, so kudos to your high wisdom score. :)

[Mx.Silver]

I haven't really tried this mod out yet, although it sounds pretty cool (brings back some fond memories of the Midguard scenario from Civ 2). I'll definitely give it a look when I have time.


So, I have to finally go out and get Beyond the Sword? What does that actually introduce to the game? I mean, this mod sounds cool, but buying an expansion pack for it...

Beyond the Sword is well worth getting (although the main menu theme isn't quite as good). You get new civs and leaders, better espionage a lot of other good tweaks. The mods aspect is also something you shouldn't overlook either and it comes with a few good ones already included, such as the galactic scale Final Frontier or the historical epic Rhye's and Fall of Civilisation.

[Eldan]

Strange, really...
I got Beyond the Sword, and it works just fine. But then I installed the 3.17 patch and Fall from Heaven, and everything crashes whenever I start. Well, no mod for me. The game itself seems interesting enough to give it a try, though.

[Gaelbert]

I have Beyond the Sword as well, and Fall From Heaven always crashes right as soon as I'm about to start the game. This irritates me as I'm really interested in it.

[Izmir Stinger]

The mod has a few known issues with workarounds that could be causing you guys' problems. This is from the bug thread, with the most likely issues bolded.


System Issues:
1. "GFC error: failed to initialaize the primary control theme" error loading the mod. You will recieve this error if FfH isn't installed in the correct location (under Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods). If you don't have Civ4 installed to that location just make sure the FfH is installed in the same directory as Final Frontier, Age of Ice and the other mods that came with BtS. Also make sure you have installed the full mod and not just the patch.
2. The mod loads okay, but when you go to start a game it crashes. You experience this error if you aren't running BtS patch 3.17.
3. If you are running BtS 3.17 and the game still crashes when starting your computer could be having problems playing the opening movie. Disabling movies resolves the problem.
4. If FfH crashes when starting a game and when you look in the Civilopedia from the main menu and you can't see units, then you have only applied the patch and you need to download and install the main mod (then reapply the patch).
5. While playing if your units look okay when moving but turn back to normal civ4 units when standing still its because you have "Freeze Animations" turned on in your game options.
6. Vista users have reported crashes if they have UAC (User Account Control) enabled.
7. Some sites you download the mod from lose the .exe extension on the file, so you just get a file that windows cant use. Renaming the file and putting the .exe back on the end fixes the problem.
8. If your research is disabled (and not temporarily by the Illian world spell) then you probably have a hidden game option set. This happens because the "saved game options" are shared between mods. So if you enable game option 34 in Fall Further then when you load FfH game option 34 will be enabled (which could be a scenario option that disables research). To fix this load Fall Further and uncheck all the game options.

[Eldan]

It's none of these problems, it's Beyond the Sword itself that crashes. Also, it doesn't crash when starting the program, but when starting a game, after choosing all the settings.

[Corlindale]

I had some issues with persistent early in-game crashes recently, but then I tried re-applying the 3.17 BTS patch after installing and patching FFH, and now it seems to have disappeared.
I don't know if that might help with your problem as well, but you could try.

[Eldan]

Hmm. I'll try that. Of course, this will take a long time, since I have to reinstall BtS and Civ again first.

[Izmir Stinger]

My in game updater for Civ 4 has never worked. After reinstalling Civ 4 one time the in game update checking feature was broken. It always reported that there were no new patches even though I knew for a fact that there were. So don't rely on that thing to tell you if you have BtS 3.17. Firaxis makes great games, but pretty crappy software.

[Eldan]

Oh, I knew that one. I never used the updater, just got the patches from the net. Checked the version now, though: for some reason, it still tells me that it's 3.13 after installing the patch.

[Izmir Stinger]

That's weird. You were able to load the mod but it crashed when you started a game, right? Cuase that is number 2 from the list of known issues. Maybe the patch file you got was mislabeled. Try getting it from somewhere else or uninstalling/reinstalling BtS, I guess.

EDIT: Oh! I thought of something. Maybe you installed the game and the patch to different locations! It is possible to do that with the Mod, so why not the patch? Double check the directories those installs are pointing to.

[Gaelbert]

Yep, it wa that I didn't have 3.17. Weird. I could have sworn I downloaded it.

My first game is with the Calabim. I'm not too far, but I'm already loving it. Anyone else use them?

[Izmir Stinger]

Yep, it wa that I didn't have 3.17. Weird. I could have sworn I downloaded it.

Glad I could help, and that you are enjoying it.


My first game is with the Calabim. I'm not too far, but I'm already loving it. Anyone else use them?

I have. I am a bit of a city perfectionist in regular civ, and their optimal play style doesn't suit me. Your "citizens" are livestock. Their comfort is not important. Their happiness is not important. Their health is only important insofar as they need to continue living and pumping that rich delicious blood through their veins. It is not uncommon for your cities in the mid-late game to have 5-10 unhealthiness and 3 or more unhappiness at any given time. This didn't jive with my "pristine bastion of civilization" attitude towards cities.

Basic strat for them:
1) Pick up esential economic techs - stuff to build improvements on your resources, civics, etc. Most of the techs in the first few columns not counting religious stuff.
2) Tech towards Feudalism.
2) Build vampires.
3) Switch many of your improvements to farms if you haven't already. Obtain insane city growth rates in every city that has a Governor's Manor. Keep one or two cities that focus on commerce and research, but the rest have become feeding troughs.
4) Eat about half the people in those cities. Rinse repeat.
5) When your vampires area descent level, go capture some cities. Bring blood pets to heal your vampires. Soften their defenses with summoned Specters and skeletons.
6) Eat their people. All of them. Give your freshly built vampires first chomp, as they need the XP more.
7) Abandon the cities. Barbarians or the survivors from that empire will recapture.
9) Consolidate your forces. Get something to deal with higher city defenses, like Mages with Fireball.
10) Repeat 4-9. At some point when you hold enemy cities, cast your world spell to get extra population to eat.

It's a pretty gruesome process.

You can completely ignore religion as the Calabim, or pick up one for diplomatic reasons. Don't pick order, as it will switch you to good, and then you can't use slavery. Fellowship of the leaves doesn't work very well either. Ashen Veil and Octopus Overlords both work fine with them.